Suspect in shooting at Kent State in custody

A person suspected of firing a gunshot on the campus of Kent State University on Wednesday was captured later that night and was in custody at a hospital, campus officials said.

Campus police said the male suspect was in custody at Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna. They did not say why he was at the hospital and gave no other details.

The university posted a notice on its Twitter page Wednesday night saying the suspect had been apprehended and there was no longer a threat to anyone on campus.

A Kent State spokeswoman said the male suspect fired the shot into the ground around 9 p.m. near Bowman Hall, an academic building. No injuries were reported.

The campus was the site of deadly shootings by Ohio National Guard members during a Vietnam War protest in 1970.

The university initially advised people across campus Wednesday to stay put while police searched for the shooter, who was believed to be carrying a silver handgun.

It later lifted an advisory to shelter in place for all buildings except Bowman Hall and the Business Administration Building, which were cleared about two hours after the gunfire.

Kent State is a public research university in Kent, a city of about 30,000 residents less than an hour’s drive southeast of Cleveland. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region, the Kent campus being the largest.

On May 4, 1970, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on Kent State students protesting the war in Vietnam. Four students died and nine were injured in the shootings, which contributed to the change in the public’s attitude toward the war.

Several guardsmen were charged with federal civil rights violations but were acquitted by a judge.

The events of that chaotic 1970 day at the Kent campus still are not fully understood, and interest in them reignited after a 2010 analysis of an enhanced audio recording concluded someone may have ordered National Guard troops to prepare to shoot. But the Department of Justice said in 2012 it wouldn’t reopen its investigation into the shootings, citing “insurmountable legal and evidentiary barriers.”